What is sleep?
by Anifan1
Summary: What happens when you take a bunch of Yeerks from the Peace Movement and put them into the heads of overworked college students? Read and find out! (final chapter)
1. Disclaimer and Vocabulary

**What is sleep?**

Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs. They're the product of KAA and Scholastic. Although, since there are no canon characters in this piece, (except for mentions of names at the beginning, but they're used in reference) I'm not sure how necessary the disclaimer is.

All of my friends are used with their permission/consent. All of their names have been changed to protect their reputations within my college campus. (except mine, 'cause everyone already knows I'm crazy)

I own every Yeerk you see here. Especially Tarash 514, 'cause she's my favorite. grins

Translation: If you use them, ask me for permission first. I'll probably give it to you, as long as you keep the fic rating to a PG, tops.

If you want to know about man names, email me. Otherwise, just know that Susan is Mel or Merl, Claire is Ted or Terd, and Anne is Ned or Nerd. Emily's Tim-just-Tim (Ned's son), Tom is Denise, and other people have them but they're not going to be used since it's mostly just Susan, Claire, Anne, and Emily who use them in real life.

Thank you's go to:

My friends, without whom this ficcie would not exist. You guys are amazing!

"Claire" for letting me type in her room while she read a book of insane length for one of her classes. (and letting me read parts of it to her, and explaining what Animorphs is)

"Carol", for reading over parts of the fic to check for OOCness and other stuff.

"Claire", again, for helping me with staying IC.

KAA for creating the Animorphs. Even if she did murder them.

Summary: Emily's friends in college are workaholics who are in desperate need of sleep. Can the Yeerks bond together to help her and her friends receive a decent amount of sleep at least a few nights of the week?

Humor. A parody. Basically plotless, depending on your definition of plot.

Enjoy!

Vocabulary:

(Not needed for Animorph fans, but if my friends actually do end up reading this, they'll need this list to have an idea of what's going on)

Yeerk: Alien slug that is a parasite. Can live in a person's mind or in a liquid substance. Blind and pretty much deaf in their natural state; need to live inside another being in order to experience life to its fullest potential. Must leave its host every three days to swim in the Yeerk Pool for a few hours.

Yeerk Pool: Place where the Yeerks receive Kandrona rays. General meeting place for Yeerks to communicate outside of their hosts.

Host: A being that a Yeerk lives inside. Can be voluntary or involuntary. Examples of hosts: Humans, Gedd, Taxxons, Hork-Bajir

Gedd: Monkey-like creature that lives on the Yeerk home world.

Taxxon: Giant centipede that struggles daily with constant hunger. Good at digging.

Hork-Bajir: peaceful creature that eats tree bark. Has lots of blades in order to eat this bark, so a good fighting machine.

Involuntary Controller: Someone who has a Yeerk inside of them but does not want it to be there. None of these exist after book 54.

Voluntary Controller: Someone who agrees to have a Yeerk live inside of them. Generally, the two will end up getting along, if not friends.

Kandrona: Replica of the Yeerk's home world's sun.

Kandrona starvation: Being deprived of being able to go into a Yeerk pool that a kandrona has poured its rays upon. Generally takes three days, but can take as long as weeks if the deprivation is slow.

Controller: Someone with a Yeerk in their head.

The Sharing: Place used in the Animorphs series as a way to recruit people to become Controllers. "Full members" were people with Yeerks in their heads.

Visser: Rank of command. Usually has murdered a fair number of creatures in order to advance so far.

Sub-Visser: rank of command, lower than a Visser. Probably killed a few amount of creatures in their day.

Council of Thirteen: In theory, a group of Yeerks who rule the empire. In reality, one Yeerk who rules the empire (the emperor), but speaks for twelve Yeerks so that no one knows who's the leader, and therefore there's less of a chance of him getting killed.

Visser three: Later became Visser one. The only Andalite Controller. Ruthless murderer who ends up in jail (without a host) for the rest of his life.

Peace Movement: a group of Yeerks who object to taking hosts who don't want an alien living inside of them.

Dracon Beam: Weapon used by Yeerks to kill or stun, depending on its adjustable setting.

Andalite: Enemies of the Yeerks. Extremely arrogant and think they're better than everyone else.

Elfangor: Gave the Animorphs the power to morph. Killed by Visser three shortly afterwards.

Morph: to change into another being. Need the escafil device in order to be able to morph.

Escafil device: Contraption created by Andalites. Once you touch it, you can morph.

Nothlit: Any creature who stays in a morph for more than two hours. They stay trapped as that animal for the rest of their lives.

Non Animorph vocabulary:

OC: Original character. Character from the figment of the fanfiction writer's deranged imagination.

Fanfiction: Fiction written by a fan of a story, series, movie, TV show, etc. Its authors are generally known for being slightly crazy. ;)

OOC: Out of character. A character in a fanfiction piece not behaving as they should, according to basic interpretation of canon. (Ie: "Tobias was so OOC in that chapter! He would never have suggested bombing the Hork-Bajir!")

Canon: What the author determines about the book she/he has written (or movie, TV show, etc.).

AU: Alternate Universe. Something that ignores canon on purpose, providing an alternate, "What if?" scenario. If they're not marked as such, they can be considered anti-canon and OOC.

Fandom: Collection of stories written by fans. Can consist of forums. Often holds similar ideas about certain characters or situations, whether or not they are actually spelled out in canon.

RL: Real life. Which does not exist here. ;)

IC: In character. Well written. For example, "Rachel was really in character during that last chapter. I thought you were KAA in disguise!" (Being compared to the author is generally considered a compliment in the Animorphs fandom)

KAA: Creator of the Animorph series, and murderer of the Animorph series. Also murderer of many Animorph characters. Thought, by many fans of the Animorphs series, to be a Controller.


	2. Prologue

In order to be technical, I suppose you could say it all started with Seerow hanging over Andalite technology to the Yeerks. Or, you could say it started with the Peace Movement, who was not founded by Aftran 942, but rather by Tarash 514, who was then Visser thirty-seven. Aftran was a relatively early member of the movement, but she lacked the brains to be able to organize it. Although the Peace Movement Yeerks recognized her as a martyr to their cause –that is, until they found out she was a whale, in which she was simply "an example of their cause"—she did not start the whole thing.

Perhaps it was better that she was known in history for having done so. If the leader was killed, the movement would die, according to Yeerks who hated the movement.

Except, the small fact remained that the real leader lived on.

Tarash 514 of the Hett Simplatt pool was a Yeerk who everyone saw as an example to the Empire. They didn't realize that she was slowly working against it even as she was rewarded for working for it.

The Peace Movement started out with a group of Yeerks who felt it was cruel to take involuntary hosts. They opposed the empire, but were not in the majority. Most Yeerks were aware of their cause and sympathized with it, but were too scared to join the movement.

Death by Kandrona starvation was not a pleasant fate. Nor was death by torture.

Everyone thought that, when the Yeerks were given the power to morph and basically commanded to choose a form and become a nothlit as that, all of the galaxy's problems would be solved.

It wasn't that easy.

It started out with a small group of humans and (extremely few, but still existent) hork-bajir who hosted Yeerks willingly found that they did not want to be separated from their Yeerk. They had been a host for some time, in many cases, and were used to the company. They had found a way to form a symbiotic relationship. They were happy.

At first, people tried to keep this quiet and use spare Kandronas and so forth in order to feed. Or, since all Yeerks were given the power to morph, they would morph an animal and then demorph, which would restart their kandrona cycle. Tarash 514, however, saw that there was a group of people emerging and decided to try to bring them together. This was even riskier than the Peace Movement because there was a great fear of Yeerks, especially by former Controllers.

A few psychologists heard about this movement and wanted to do a study involving Yeerks and their effect on willing humans. The Peace Movement agreed to participate, since if the findings were positive, this could basically be their ticket to open organization and free infestation.

In particular, the study focused on the effects that happened when an involuntary Controller was freed of his Yeerk. The results were very controversial, but so accurate that they could not be denied.

People with Yeerks tended to be well adjusted, happier, and hold greater endurance during trials in life. For them, their Yeerk was their friend (often their closest one) who they could confide in and go to for help.

For involuntary ex-Controllers, there was no healing period. While some of the later Controllers moved on to live relatively happy lives, most were simply depressed and unable to recover. They were simply used to the presence in their mind, almost to the extent of an addictive drug, and while they were never actually happy under Yeerk control, it was what they knew.

Some people also had trouble mastering motor skills and speaking once they were finally freed, which resulted in quite a few people being fired from work. (Not being able to concentratenot being able to communicateboss who loses patience easilybeing laid off. Politely, of course) It was really more cruel to take the Yeerk out of the host than to put a Yeerk inside an involuntary host. Although some therapists tried to help, most had not been Controllers or had not experienced Yeerk domination in this way, so there wasn't much they could do to help.

Once these findings were released, some people got very annoyed...they claimed that these scientists were trying to reinfest the world, and others said that they must be Yeerks in disguise. When other scientists tried to refute the original ones by doing the same study but trying to prove the opposite, they found that they could not do so.

So, to make a long story short, the Human (or Host)-Yeerk Alliance was formed. By Tarash 514, of course. All people could be infested voluntarily, however, there were a few conditions.

1. Free permission to leave. At any time, the human can ask the Yeerk to leave, or the Yeerk can leave on its own. The human can then choose to be free or to try another Yeerk. Limit to this: Once every two weeks.

2. No torture. Self explanatory.

3. Operations: All Yeerks who choose to stay Yeerks must undergo a delicate procedure which basically forces them to withdraw from the human's brain (refrain from taking control) if the human being does not wish their Yeerk to do so.

After this, the Sharing opened, but they were honest this time. Now, a few years later, more Yeerks had to be transported from other planets in order to deal with the demand for infestation. Originally, there were 10,000 Yeerks who controlled 5000 people- now the number has spread well into the millions.

Another problem also became how to deal with the Kandrona situation. Many hosts were simply too busy to spend several hours waiting at the Yeerk Pool to feed, plus the additional driving time. As a result, all Yeerks were provided with a Kandrona and nutrient packets which were supposed to last a year.

If they broke, the host must pay a twenty-five dollar fine for a replacement.

The Kandrona Industry started up after this new demand for Yeerks, and is one of the wealthiest companies in the nation.

Even so, not many people are aware of Yeerks because it tends to blend with society as a sort of counter-culture. No one really says anything about it, and it's seen as a sort of dirty secret. A spreading secret would be a more accurate name for it.

Emily was one of the original humans and she hosted Tarash since nearly the beginning of the war. (Always voluntary- the two were inseparable. Except when Tarash had to feed, and then they were. Separable, that is.) Since going to college, she had been uneasy about her secret, and finally confided in her friends fairly recently.

She feared that her friends would consider her crazy, but, to her surprise, many sympathized. Some of them thought the idea was a good one, and wanted to become Controllers, or at the more politically correct way to put it was, "Members of the HYA."

What none of the Yeerks who infested (or "partnered", as was more polite to say) her friends knew was the stresses that college students went through.


	3. Emily and Tarash

Tarash 514 usually considered herself lucky. Emily, at least, got a decent amount of sleep most of the time.

Even if she did have to be reminded at times, like today, to put away her homework and go to bed.

_Emily,_ Tarash nudged at her host's mind. Gently, of course. _Time for bed. It's past 1:30._

_Hold on, Tarash,_ came the distant reply. _I want to get out these ideas._

Tarash sighed. _Emily, the paper's not due for another week and a half._

_But I'm inspired _now, her host protested. _And I'm not really tired._

_Yes, you are,_ Tarash protested. Then continued, _And if you're not now, you will be when your alarm clock wakes you up at 9 in the morning and you will not have gotten enough sleep._

_If my body's not tired now, it won't go to sleep. I've tried enough times before, _Emily protested.

Tarash turned her host's eyes towards the clock, which caused Emily to stop typing.

_I can't see the keyboard,_ she complained.

_Good. Now, let's go to bed._

_Five more minutes._

_I gave you five minutes yesterday. It became an hour and a half._

_Yeah, well, that was different. This is schoolwork._

_Emily, I'm serious. If you don't get into bed right now, I'll make you._

Emily glared at Tarash. _I thought you didn't believe in taking control without your host's permission._

_I don't, usually. But when they're going to make themselves sick from lack of sleep, that's where I draw the line._

Emily sighed, knowing that she was defeated. _Fine,_ she grumbled.

She finished her sentence, saved her work, turned off the lights, and got into bed.

_Night, Tarash,_ she mumbled as she pulled the covers over her, tucking them around her.

_Sweet dreams, Em._


	4. Carol's Problem

On the other side of campus, the battle had only begun.

_It is nearly 2:00 and you have barely even started your homework!_ Janent 698 admonished.

_Janent, how could I have done it earlier? I had class until past four, then a meeting, then dinner, then planning, and then I needed to deal with the issue of vomit on the bathroom floor._

Carol was a newly appointed Resident Advisor in one of the dorms. Had Janent been inside of Carol before she had applied, she would have tried to thwart her host. Carol had been the last to join the Sharing; she was a month "younger" than the others.

_You had time this afternoon, and you could have skipped all of your meetings. With a five page paper due tomorrow…no, today, two tests to study for, and a chapter to read for it, I should think they would have been understanding._

_It's part of my job. Anyway, the tests aren't for another few days._

_You'll be busy during at least half of the weekend and you'll need to…_

…"_Have a thorough understanding of the material and the way it can be applied," _Carol finished. _I am aware of this. I heard my professor say it. Now, if you don't mind, I need to get started on my homework._

_This is the third night in a row you've received less than seven hours of sleep,_ Janent complained.

Carol sighed. _And hopefully the last._

_Doubtful._

_Janent, please. You're only going to keep me up later if you keep talking to me while I'm trying to do work._

Janent sighed, withdrew completely from her host's mind (it would simply be too tempting to respond to thoughts if she heard them), and decided that she, at least, deserved a good six hours of sleep before her host needed to wake up for her math class at 8:30 the next morning.


	5. Susan's Dilema

Susan rummaged through her papers, looking for the latest assignment for her literature class. Usually, she woke up early on the day it was due and worked on it then, but as this would be equivalent to a midterm grade, she thought she should start on it before then.

The only problem was that the paper was nowhere to be found.

_Susan,_ came the familiar voice from inside of her head.

She sighed, ground her teeth, and replied as politely as possible, _Yes, Karsae?_

Couldn't the Yeerk tell that she was trying to find an important piece of paper? Why did she always have to interrupt at the worst possible time?

_Your paper is under your bed._

_And how do you know that? _Susan folded her hands across her chest.

_You put it there the day that it was assigned. Three weeks ago, I believe._

Her voice held more than a hint of reproach.

Ignoring this, Susan searched under her bed, retrieved the sheet, and thanked the Yeerk.

"Write a ten page analysis of the use of plot and character in the works we have read and discussed. Include examples from your own writing as well. The goal for this assignment is to make you think critically of how a play thinks."

Susan wanted to slam her head against the wall. This would take forever. And she still had a five page paper to write for her religion class! Plus two chapters of reading.

Were her professors _trying_ to torture her?

_I would tell you that procrastination doesn't pay, but I can tell that you already know this,_ came the amused voice of the Yeerk.

_It's how I work,_ Susan replied.

_Even so, you can't deny that things have been getting much worse recently. Not just for you, but for your friends._

Susan sighed. _I'm a senior. I have grad school stuff to do. It's even more stressful than applying to college._

_Why don't you write a page and then go to bed? You can wake up early tomorrow to write your paper, and you'll be able to think more clearly after getting a good night's rest,_ coaxed Karsae.

_I still have two chapters to read for my religion class before I can start _that_ paper…_

_Write the page, get ready for bed, and then do the reading,_ Karsae replied.

_That means doing five pages tomorrow and four the next day,_ Susan complained.

The Yeerk laughed. _You've done more than that in one day._

_I guess…_

_Don't stress out about it. I'll help you, if need be. I can access your memories better than you can._

_Doesn't mean I _like_ it when you do that._

_I know. _Karsae's voice was soothing._ But when you put it off until the last minute, like you're doing right now, we don't really have much of a choice._ Silence. Then, _Now, let's get started and maybe you'll get to bed by 4AM this time…_


	6. The tension grows

Down the hall from a now sleeping Emily, Claire and Anne were working on their homework. Claire was writing a paper for her English class- Anne was answering what felt like ten zillion questions about observing insects.

Her Yeerk, Iftran 392, insisted it was only two hundred and thirty two.

_Next semester, no science classes_, the Yeerk told Anne sternly.

_As though I need to be told this! This is worse than…_ She trailed off.

_Than high school science?_

_Definitely. No comparison between the two._ Anne turned to her roommate.

"Yo, Claire?"

"Yeah, Anne?" she questioned, still typing her paper.

"This stinks. I mean, it really stinks. Do you know what time it is?"

"What time?" Claire's fingers were still typing away busily at the keyboard.

"2:45. In the morning. Unless it's a weekend, we shouldn't be up so late."

"And if we were, we'd be doing something fun, not writing these annoying papers," Claire agreed, eyes not leaving the keyboard. "Or doing insane amounts of reading, or…"

She was interrupted by the phone.

"Hello? Yeah, it's Ted. What's up? No, we're still away…I mean, awake." Then she laughed. "Okay, that too. How's the paper coming along? Two and a half pages…that's great. Oh, it's supposed to be ten? When's it due? Aw, Sue, you've got loads of time. Yeah, Anne's here. She's fine, but she's stressed out about her ants…okay, I'll tell her." Claire turned to Anne. "Merl says to flush 'em down the toilet."

"But I like ants!" Anne protested.

Claire rolled her eyes and continued on the phone; "No, I think Emily went to bed. Oh, I see. Okay. Well, look, Merl, I need to write five more pages by ten o'clock tomorrow morning…I have three so far, so...Yeah, I have a thesis. I just need to evolve it. Okay, I'll let you in. 'Bye!" She frowned. "Did I just say, 'evolve it'? I'm going crazy!"

"What did she want?" questioned Anne, having finished question number one hundred and ninety-eight and now starting one hundred and ninety-nine.

_What I find amusing is that you didn't even ask who it was,_ Iftran laughed.

_How could I not know? She said "Sue" and called her "Merl." You don't get many of those around here._

_I know, I just find it amusing that you can concentrate on both things at once._

Anne shrugged. _Let's just get this finished, okay? I want to get at least fifty more done by tomorrow, given that the whole thing is due on Wednesday._

_I should have made you drop out of college,_ Iftran laughed.

"Anne?"

Anne snapped out of her "reverie." "Did you say something?"

"Yeah. A couple of things, actually. Talking with Iftran again?"

"She wants me to drop out of…I did _not_ say that!" the Yeerk interrupted, taking control of the vocal chords. "I merely said that I should have made her drop out. As a joke." Seeing Claire's puzzled look, Iftran added, "Out of college."

She then released control.

Claire laughed. "I think we're all going to be in danger of losing whatever sanity we have or of dropping/failing out before we graduate. The workload is insane."

"Um, Claire…you're the one who's taking five credits!" Anne retorted.

"Yeah, but just four of the classes are real ones. The other two don't really count."

_I believe your roommate is crazy,_ Iftran observed.

_I've noticed. But then again, so am I._

_I _have _noticed that,_ Iftran laughed.

"Anyway, what did Merl want?"

"She wanted to know if Emily was here. She came by around 10 for a little, but that's it. She's probably asleep. You know how her Yeerk is."

Anne nodded. "A regular mom, that one. Probably sent her to sleep as soon as she left for her dorm. Did Susan say what she wanted?"

"Just that they were coming over to do homework. She can't concentrate in her room. Too much noise from the hall and all." She glanced at her unfinished paper again. "I still have nearly five pages to write on this."

"I'll let her in, you do your paper. I have until Wednesday to finish this junk, and a few minutes isn't going to make a big difference." She got up, yawned, and head out of the room.

The hall was silent, even more silent than usual. She could hear a faint jingling of keys and knew it was one of the RAs, checking to make sure no one was drinking, vandalizing the bathroom or the halls, or basically harming themselves or the campus in any way. (The campus came first.)

A few minutes later, Merl was approaching the dorm.

"Hey," Anne greeted as she opened the door.

"Hey, Nerd," Susan replied, using her pet name for Anne's man name. "How are the ants?"

"They're all right. It's the _homework_ that I want to flush down the toilet," Anne/Nerd grumbled. "And your paper?"

"Well, I have stuff written, but I need a thesis."

"Claire's got the opposite problem."

"We should combine them," Susan laughed.

They headed up the stairs.

"Hey, Merl," Claire greeted, not looking up from her paper. "Sorry, I'm at this really good part…"

Susan smiled. "Grab hold of the inspiration, Claire. We all could use it."

Anne flopped down on the floor. "What we could use is sleep."

"Dude. I think all of us combined got maybe enough sleep this week for one person. If that." Claire's eyes and fingers didn't leave the keyboard as she spoke.

"This time of year, the professors go crazy. So does everyone. There's, like, all this stuff to do in the next few weeks, and it should have been done over the past three months or so," Susan sighed.

"Even Emily looks like she hasn't gotten a lot of sleep lately," Anne noted as she retrieved her science questions. Then sighed. "And you know her…she's the one who says she'd rather fail than pull an all-nighter."

"Looks like we're doing both," replied Claire. "It's crazy."

Just then, there was a knock on the door.


	7. More problems

Tonrad 112 decided that enough was enough. His host was taking five classes, plus a job, plus activities, plus a bunch of other things. Although his host somehow managed to get everything done, he felt that going to bed at 3:00 in the morning to wake up for an 8:30 class was pushing the limit. His host might be able to endure it, but he sure couldn't.

So, there they were. Homework finished, waiting outside of Claire and Anne's door. He would need to have a talk with Iftran and Garnas about this. Perhaps, if all of the Yeerks stuck together on this one, held a conference, their hosts would do something to change their schedules.

Or, at least they could get reinfested into adult host bodies whose job was generally nine to five, plus overtime and kids to care for.

"Come on in!" yelled Claire in her man name voice. "We're just doin' some homework."

"Just!" echoed two other voices.

Tonrad/Tom opened the door. Seated at one of the desks was Claire on her computer, at the other desk sat Susan with her laptop with a book being held open under the keyboard, and Anne was sprawled out on the floor, answering questions from a very thick looking packet.

"Hey, Tom," Susan greeted. "Join the party."

He laughed. "Where's the food?"

"It's, ah, on its way," replied Claire as her hands raced across the keyboard.

He took a seat on the "comfy chair", as Emily was known to call it. Big, off-white, and tilted slightly, it was a great place to watch TV and talk, but a terrible place to do homework.

"My Yeerk wants to have a talk with your Yeerks," he explained.

The other hosts groaned. "Tonrad, we have homework," Susan complained. "Can't it wait?"

"It's actually about that," Tonrad clarified. "You guys can keep typing and stuff, just let the Yeerks do the talking."

"Since when did you become Visser five?" Claire grumbled. Her eyes had finally left the computer screen.

"Actually, we need her, too. And Janent. And Mertil."

Mertil was Amy's Yeerk. Amy was a science major and a double minor. It was because of this that she didn't sleep.

No one had seen her within the last few days.

"Em visited like five hours ago. Her Yeerk makes her go to bed before sunrise. And if Carol's up, she's also doing work," Claire reported.

"I'll call them." Although Tarash held the highest rank of them all, he was directly under her, which meant that although he could not execute subordinates or anything, he held some authority.

The Peace Movement had voted on upholding the positions of Vissers, sub-Vissers, etc. Now, though, these Yeerks who had voted for it wondered if they should have voted against.

"The phone's over there," Anne replied, scribbling something down.

Tonrad nodded and head over to the phone.

"Hello, Carol. Can you come over? Yes, it's important…"


	8. Some kind of a resolution

A/N: My friends have a (really nice) split double. It's basically a large room with a wall in the middle. The beds can go there, or it can be a study space. The way my friends have it, the beds are in the smaller room with their dressers, as well as some odds, ends, and posters. Everything else is in the larger room, which is maybe twice the size of the smaller room. "Claire" once told me and "Anne" that she thought the smaller room with the beds was larger than my single. I'm convinced that my single is at least a few feet bigger.

The phone jerked Emily out of a sound sleep. Her eyes popped open, and she bolted out of bed.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hey, Em. It's Carol," a tired sounding voice on the other end replied. "Tom just called and wants me to come over. He said he'd call you next, but I told him not to bother. Can you let me into the building in a few minutes?"

"Sure, no problem," Emily replied, glancing towards the clock. It read 3:05. In the morning. _This was getting ridiculous…_ "See you soon."

They hung up and Emily yawned. "This is insanity," she decided.

_I think that my brother and sister Yeerks think it's _you_ who are insane,_ came an amused voice from the back of her head.

_Thanks a lot._

_I mean "you" in the generic sense. You know, college students. If we had known it was going to be this bad…_

_I know, I know. You would have gotten reassigned the day we graduated high school. Or made me drop out. Or transfer._

Tarash sent Emily an image of the Yeerk nodding her head, which caused Emily to crack up. After she was finished, Tarash spoke.

_Even freshman year wasn't _so_ terrible. But this…_

Emily sighed, as she pulled a bathrobe on over her flowered nightgown. She looked around in the dark for her shoes, retrieved them without much effort, and head downstairs. Except for the lights being on, there was no evidence that anyone else was awake in the whole building.

_I have a feeling that quite a few people are, though,_ Tarash responded, amused.

_Especially the science students,_ Emily agreed.

Carol was standing outside in a blue sweatshirt and sweatpants.

"Hey, Em," she said as the sophomore let her into the building. "Did we wake you?"

"The call woke me, and my jumping out of bed woke Tarash." She stifled a yawn. "She's not a happy camper."

_You can say _that_ again._

_I could, but I won't._

Carol nodded. "I wasn't thrilled about it, either. I was working on a ten page paper, due tomorrow. I mean, it was due yesterday's tomorrow. Which is today."

_Lack of sleep?_ Tarash wondered, sounding rather amused.

_Definitely._ Emily's response was one of sympathy.

"I was working on one of those when Tarash made me go to sleep. I really waited until the last minute for it."

Carol raised her eyebrows. "Last minute" according to Emily meant an early start for anyone else.

"Due…Monday?"

Emily shook her head. "I have ten days. But I hadn't done any work on it since it was assigned, which was about a month ago."

Carol looked impressed. "That's still really working ahead. Good job!"

Emily shrugged. "Want to see what this is all about?"

Carol nodded. "Let's hope it won't take too long. I should have brought work."

"Consider it a study break," her friend suggested.

A few minutes later, Carol (or was it Janent?) was knocking on Claire and Anne's door.

"Come in," called Tom, as the door opened.

Four people were already there, three of who were doing homework and one who was lounging on the comfy chair, but looking stressed nonetheless.

"Where's Mertil?" Susan asked.

"Couldn't make it. Major lab write-up due at 8AM," Tom reminded her. "We'll debrief them later."

_She's probably high on caffeine, then,_ Emily noted.

_Yes, that _does_ seem to be how she manages to accomplish her homework and attend classes while getting minimal amounts of sleep._

He displayed a large cup of water for all to see.

_This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs,_ Emily joked.

_Or lack of sleep._

_Sleep? What's that?_

_I'm beginning to wonder, myself,_ Tarash sighed.

"No offense to our hosts, but we need a Yeerk conference. So, everyone, in the water," Tom continued.

"Um, how will we know which Yeerk is which when they come back?" asked Claire.

"We'll swap, if need be," Anne mumbled from her science.

"Yeah, it's not like we can go around putting dots on them," Tom replied patiently.

He put the water up to his ear, and Tonrad plopped in a moment later. He passed the cup around, and the others followed his move.

Once the Yeerks were packed into that small space, Tom put it on top of Claire's desk.

"Now, what?" Susan asked.

"We wait," Tom laughed.

"There are chairs for you guys," Claire added. "One beside Nerd, the other that Merl's blocking."

The newcomers started to sit down, but then Susan spoke up with an idea.

"Why don't Tom, Carol, and Emily go to the other room and hang out while we do our homework? We'll call you when the Yeerks are ready."

Since the other alternative was to watch the others do homework, the three agreed without much hesitation.

"Feel free to make use of our beds," Anne added, speaking for herself and Claire.

"Just be careful about the mess. I think I left knitting needles around somewhere," Claire cautioned.

Carol, Emily, and Tom waded through their friends and made their way to the other side of the split double, which was devoid of any knitting needles.

Emily and Carol chose Claire's bed on which to plop, while Tom settled on Anne's.

"So, Tom. What's up?" Carol asked.

He shrugged. "Not a whole lot. Started writing another song today, fixed some computers, went to class, did homework. And went to about a couple gazillion meetings."

"Gazillion?" Emily questioned, smiling.

"Yeah, not just a zillion, but a _ga_zillion," Tom grinned.

"I shouldn't even be here now. I should be working on my paper, or studying for a test," Carol sighed. "Preferably both at the same time."

"Tarash isn't thrilled about the whole thing, either."

Tom laughed. "Once Tonrad gets an idea in his head…"

"We're not blaming you," Carol yawned, pulling the rubber band out of her hair in order to redo her ponytail.

Emily nodded. "Wonder when they'll be done discussing everything. Or what they're going to say."

"Stop taking so many classes, especially when you have a job? That's what Tonrad tells me. All the time," Tom replied, with a half laugh, half shrug.

"Actually start your homework in the afternoon, opposed to waiting until midnight?" Emily laughed, scratching at her ear. "Although this is the first time that's happened. I was up until 2AM. Then, Tarash literally made me go to bed."

"Beat you! I was up until three…wait, I still am up," Tom added.

"2:00? You were in bed by 2? 2AM is when I _started_ my homework," Carol yawned. "After this is over, I think I'll be up until at least 5."

"Take a nap at some point," Emily suggested.

Carol shook her head. "No time. Tomorrow's…I mean…" She trailed off. "Today's going to be even busier than yesterday. Not to mention that I'll be on duty then. I have a math test to study for, and another test, both of which are on Monday."

"Dude," Tom sympathized. Then, "Why don't you take a nap now? We have no idea when they'll be done."

Carol shrugged. "I might as well. I'll probably end up more tired when I wake up, but…"

"Carol? Try not to snore _too_ loudly," Tom cautioned.

Carol sighed and rolled her eyes in response.

Emily switched to Anne's bed so that her friend could lie down. As Carol slept, Emily and Tom made small talk for about a half an hour as they waited.

The two of them were so exhausted that they didn't even remember what they talked about when they saw each other at lunch later that day.

"The Yeerks are ready!" called Claire.

Tom laughed. "Sounds like they're food."

Emily giggled, and then glanced at Carol. "Guess we should wake her."

Tom nodded. "You want to jump on the bed and make noises, or should I?"

Emily frowned in response. She jumped off the bed and knelt in front of the sleeping senior.

"Carol? Time to wake up," she whispered.

Carol made a loud grunt in reply.

"The Yeerks are ready. The sooner you get up, the sooner you can do homework, and the sooner you can go back to bed."

Carol rolled over under the covers and made an indistinguishable noise vaguely resembling, "Go away."

Emily turned to Tom. "Why don't we let her go last? Or we can just put Janent in her head and she'll wake her up."

"Poor Janent," Tom laughed.

He got up and they head into the larger part of the split double.

"We already got our Yeerks sorted out. Those are yours. Where's Carol?" Susan asked.

"Sleeping. We're going to put Janent in her ear and the Yeerk will wake her up. Or, let her sleep and do the paper for her," Emily replied.

She found Tarash and slipped the Yeerk back into her ear. Tarash had been easy to spot because she was a few inches smaller than most Yeerks. A few minutes later, Tarash had reconnected and taken control. She took the remaining slug outside of the cup of water, and took it into the other room.

Carol looked as though she was in a coma. Emily stifled a laugh, placed Janent to her friend's ear, and waited for the Yeerk to make the connections.

"Still sleeping," The Yeerk reported. "I'll let her rest and finish off the paper. Otherwise, tomorrow's going to be a nightmare."

Emily nodded. "Don't you mean today?"

Janent smiled wearily. "All days, really."

They went back into the larger room, and found Claire still typing away at her paper, Anne still answering science questions, and everyone else leaving.

"Night," she said, figuring she'd ask Tarash about what happened later.

"Night," the roommates responded. Or rather, one said, "Night!" and the other said, "Sweet dreams, son!"


	9. Late to bed, early to rise

5:30AM. Claire had finally finished writing and revising her paper. It seemed, if not great, intelligible.

_Let's go to bed, now,_ Garnas 475 nudged. _Your class doesn't start for several hours. You can still get a reasonable five hours of sleep._

_Let me just print this thing out, first,_ Claire replied, and hit the print button on the file. She yawned.

Once the nine pages were finished and in order, Claire made her way into bed.

_I think this is the latest I've ever stayed up,_ she stated as she snuggled under the soft sheets.

_I expect…I know it will be the last time, too,_ Garnas soothed.

Claire shut her eyes. _The reading load is insane. And that's just for one class. I hope next semester won't be this bad…_

_For now, let's concentrate on getting you through this one alive. And relatively sane. Might I suggest doing some reading during break for your classes next semester?_

_You can, but I'm not going to do it._

Garnas grumbled something incomprehensible to his host. Then, _Okay. We'll discuss it later. Go to bed._

_Trying, here._ She turned to look at her roommate. The covers were completely discarded and she looked almost dead.

_She got to bed an hour before I did, _Claire sighed, and rolled over. _But her class is in a few hours._

_Poor thing._ Garnas sighed internally. _You college students really try to do too much._

_Speaking of which, are you going to tell me what happened at the meeting?_

_I'll tell you once you've woken up and had something to eat,_ Garnas replied.

_You're impossible._

_You would know._


	10. And we find out what happens

Amy ended up finding out what happened later that morning. She and Emily always had breakfast on Fridays after her 8AM science class. Amy tried not to be envious of the fact that while she was dealing with Physics laws, Emily was sound asleep.

Emily's alarm clock woke her up from a sound sleep at 9:01. She rolled over, jumped out of bed, and turned the annoying thing off.

Tarash was still sleeping. Emily rolled her eyes. She searched her closet for a pair of comfortable pants and then checked to see if she had any emails or IMs from the night before. Aside from an email from her grandmother stating that, "You have received a fun page!" there was nothing there.

Fifteen minutes later, she was waiting for Amy near one of the dining halls. A minute or so later, the science major arrived, looking very tired.

"Hi, Amy. How was class?"

"It was okay."

They walked towards the nicer of the dining halls.

"How did your lab writeup go?" Emily questioned.

"It's finished."

"Another all nighter?"

"I managed a two hour nap around 4. Had to wake up at 6 because I still needed to do French."

"How…?"

"I procrastinate. It's a bad habit."

"I think you're the only one on campus who realizes this."

They found a table and marked it with their backpacks.

They went to retrieve some semi-edible food from the lines, and after a few minutes of inspection, returned to their seat with their trays reasonably full.

"Did Tarash tell you what they've decided?" Amy questioned, once they had started eating.

"She summarized it this morning. Basically, they are going to make us start our work as soon as we get a free minute during the day. They might make us skip meetings and stuff if we're behind. Do some of it while we're asleep. And make sure we're in bed by 2:00AM, at the latest. Midnight, if possible."

"Tarash already has the last part down," Amy laughed.

"Too true."

"So, we're not going to have to drop out of college?" Amy questioned. "Drat."

"Only if things get worse."

"Okay, so we have a week before we're kicked out by our Yeerks," Amy laughed.

"That's the gist of it."

**The End**


End file.
